March 22, 2016

Breathing is necessary and we all know how to do it. But Breathing for Brain Fitness is a whole other animal and one you and your family can easily learn. It will enhance all your travels and your life in general. Let me explain. Our brains are greedy They steal 20% of every breath we take. But it\’s never enough. We would all benefit from 25 extra deep breaths daily to improve the oxygenation and circulation to our brain but there never seems to be sufficient time in a day to do it all, right?  And who can be bothered to remember to breath in a special way in our hectic lives? YOU can! Travel is a perfect time to develop good breathing habits. We are already more relaxed and open to new experiences on a trip. It\’s easy to include it in your itinerary and can become a good \”family togetherness\” part of any travel plan. Car travel is an easy place to add this but breathing can happen anywhere – an airport, a coffee shop, a bus or train ride, a visit to the beach. That\’s the beauty of this process.   Breathing for brain fitness helps improve memory as you relax and increase your visual vocabulary and ability. This comes in handy for those endless “Where\’s Waldo”  games that require focus and good visual skills. Studies show regular deep breathing will help with so many other parts of your lives including family, team and individual sports. Deep breathing also takes the testosterone and hormonal levels down a good few notches – great to use for those who travel with teens and young adults. Basically, breathing is necessary but Breathing for Brain Fitness is a must for those cabin fever moments during trips where extreme weather can keep everyone inside, climbing the walls. So let\’s begin.  Training your brain? Brain fitness? What is that? Our brains are amazing, incredible tools – we use them all the time (except that woman who cut you off in the left turn lane – clearly, she was not using her brain!). Current research tells us that our brains have astounding plasticity and are constantly being constantly being reshaped based on our experiences. But are you and your family stretching your brains, exercising that versatile muscle daily to improve its flexibility, elasticity, processing speed, and forcing it to grow in ways that only mental strength training can encourage? If your answer is no, the time to start is now. It\’s Easy as 1, 2, 3 Breathing for Brain Fitness requires 3 simple steps Breathe in through your nose slowly and deeply, counting as you do. Hold that breath for your original count PLUS ONE. Push out your breath fully through lightly clenched teeth with a huge smile on your face using a “shee” sound for your original count PLUS TWO. You should hear your exhale clearly. Practice in private if you are self conscious but the \”shee\” part is important. It helps to fully release the breath you are holding and studies show that you breath out toxins as well.Rinse and repeat twice. Ideally, if you could do 8 sets of three breaths a few times during the day, you would see the great benefits immediately. Try to work up to a 10 second breath as your ultimate goal during the course of your trip. That means you would work toward a 10 count breath IN, then really HOLD it for a count to 11, and “shee” your breath OUT s-l-o-w-l-y for a full count to 12. About 90 seconds for a set of 3 and you will be fully on the road to Brain Fitness Gold! Keep a breathing chart or mark down the count level achieved with other journal entries. It really helps to note it down. There are many ways to do this but I have a tracker I\’ve prepared for you. Go to http://BrainFitnessUnlimited.com/BreathingforBrainFitnessTracker to download and begin!  Road trips are a great time to practice Breathing for Brain Fitness and an easy time to track progress. It will really help you survive in a brainy way! Check out TMOM Mimi Slawoff\’s Family Road Trip Survival Guide for some other great road trip tips. Just add Breathing for Brain Fitness to her list… ;D Brains are amazing. Truly. It\’s with the help of your brain that you\’re reading and understanding these words, right now. Awesome, right? Even better is just knowing that there are many ways to activate your brain and make it stronger. Any word games and counting games you can add to any and all trips will benefit everyone\’s brain, young and old. As you put your brain through new experiences and exercises, you create new stronger brain synapses, strengthen existing neural connections and build new ones. As you do cognitive exercises, you are actually taking your brain on a trip to the gym: the brain gym. But you don’t need an expensive gym membership or countless hours of sweating to start on your way to brain fitness – all you need to do to begin is breathe. The time for you and your family to begin is today.